Category Archives: British Brides

Marie and Nigel’s Oxford wedding had a retro, tropical theme. The bride, a costume designer, even made her incredible wedding dress herself. They were married in June 2016. “I’m a massive vintage fan so always knew that would be part of my day”, said Marie. “We decided to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon and the two themes just worked perfectly together.”

The day was held at Springfield Lake, Oxford. “Most of the weddings we’d been to up until that point had been at a regular ‘wedding venue’, and although we considered these options it just wasn’t for us. We wanted total control and flexibility over what we were doing, and wanted to pick and choose what traditions to follow. Our venue wasn’t registered to do legal ceremonies, but I’ve always wanted to get married in Vegas so we decided to legally marry there as part of our honeymoon (which is totally epic by the way!) but to do a full unofficial ceremony at our wedding venue.”

Rachael and Miguel were married at The Asylum Chapel in Peckham. They fell in love with it as soon as they saw pictures of it online and when they went for a visit they booked it on the spot!

“We met when I booked him to design me a tattoo!” began the bride. “It was a huge side piece and I chose him as his book really stood out. When I went to meet him and discuss
the design it really was love at first sight for us both. It took another year before I finally
plucked up the courage to ask him out though, he didn’t think it was appropriate or professional to ask me himself!”

“The overall theme was ‘Til Death do us part’ and even the invites had a skull bride and groom on them! Our guests were really excited when they received them as they knew from the start that it was not going to be a traditional wedding. For our seating plan my artist friend and I made a graveyard scene in an old picnic hamper, complete with wedding vow gravestones and moss, each table was named after a wedding vow!”

Eilidh and Peter had only one thing in mind for their October wedding: To have a damn good party! The day was held at Dalduff Farm in Aryshire, Scotland, and they were very much inspired by their Scottish heritage for their decor and theme.

“We wanted a wedding with plenty laughter, fun, food and frolics with our nearest and
dearest”, said the bride. “What ended up on show was a Scottish barn wedding filled with meaningful vows, beautifully smelling flora and fauna foliage, lanterns and a musical rumpus with our ceilidh band at night. One guest said they felt like they were in a whiskey advert; I liked that.”

“I grew up in the Scottish Highlands on the coast, and Pete in the roving fields of Ballymena Northern Ireland. We both wanted a completely relaxed, countryside-chic vibe, with the flexibility to choose our own ideas. Dalduff Farm allowed this to happen.”

They put a lot of effort into all the little details. “The little details did count”, she continued. “Having the venue for three days, a close friend conducting the ceremony, hiring the farmhouse accommodation, thefirepit with marshmallows, our own bar, sparklers, wild flowers, winter scented candles, candid photography, confetti cannons, Hog Roasts, wedding feasts, and a band that don’t ‘do’ weddings… that’s what made our wedding special.”

Beth and Martin were together for 11 years before they decided to get married. They wanted their wedding to be a relaxed, informal city wedding with skulls as decorations. They also wanted to focus on everyone having an amazing day. They decided to not have a table plan or a formal sit down meal.

“We took loads of inspiration from Rock n Roll Bride,” explained Beth. “We were on there daily looking at different ideas. All of the weddings featured really inspired us when we started planning, as it was great to see that there were other couples out there doing what they wanted! We also didn’t want the wedding to be too formal as it wasn’t our vibe. We didn’t have too much of a strategy when planning, if we liked it, it was in the wedding!”

Mel and Tim met when they camped next to each other at Glastonbury and when planning their wedding, their starting point was that they just wanted to have a fun party. They also wanted to avoid anything too formal and ‘wedding-y’. They chose Stour Space in Hackney as their venue as it was relaxed and a little rough around the edges, which they liked. Their wedding was held in the evening, in winter, which further added to the party vibes.

They took inspiration from the 1950s and focused on pastel colours, sequins, kitsch animals and retro typography. Mel explained, “As I had a vintage dress we decided to run with the 50s style. It contrasted well with the sparse, modern venue we’d chosen and stopped it looking too cutesy. We saved endless pictures of 50s fabrics and cocktail menus for inspiration and we were really lucky to have amazing designer friends to bring the theme to life. Gemma created our invitations and little enamel badges, which we gave out as favours. Nat designed all the décor and the dreamy perspex signage; the huge ‘Tim & Mel Say Hi!’ sign now greets people in our hallway!”

When it came to wedding planning, Alice and James worked on finding a middle ground between their very contrasting tastes. They wanted their wedding to celebrate their differences. They looked at colour as a way of showing their different viewpoints and the end result was a mix of a few different themes. They served vegetarian and vegan food, and they had a vegan wedding cake.

“Our tastes couldn’t be more different,” began James, “so we didn’t really go for a specific theme. Our inspiration was using our contrasting tastes to our advantage. Alice loves pinks and mauves, I love navy and greys, so we looked at showing both these viewpoints and uniting it all with a rose gold to match our engagement and wedding rings. Alice loves layers, complex details and decoration, while I am into stripped back, ‘essentials-only’ type of aesthetics. Food and music were also a huge inspiration and something we felt we HAD to get right.”